Social persistence of plant-based management of dryland salinity

Rural areas of Australia are undergoing rapid social and economic transformations, creating a divergence between those rural landscapes that are depopulating and those that are repopulating. In the depopulating landscape of the cropping zones at risk to salinity, the new paradigm of salinity management based on the development of new plant production systems may be the best strategy available. We suspect this strategy will be less suited to the repopulating rural areas, where amenity is a major factor in population growth. In these landscapes, investment in recharge control based upon commercial pasture production or plantation forest industries is unlikely to be socially compatible with the aspirations of future residents. Strategies aimed at low-cost re-establishment of native vegetation may be more appropriate, but will still be limited in their application. Any discussion of the sustainability of plant-based management systems for dryland salinity needs to include not only biological or agronomic persistence, but also social persistence.